MASP

Caroline Frederica Leveson Gower, born Foljambe, came to Brazil alongside her husband—Arthur Francis Leveson Gower (1851–1922), a diplomat who served as second secretary of the British delegation in Rio de Janeiro between 1881 and 1883—and here developed a brief career as a painter. Very little is known about her artistic output and biographical data. The watercolor Panorama of the Guanabara Bay, done in July of 1883, portrays a horizontal view of the entrance to the capital of the Brazilian Empire, in minute proportions, suggesting that the piece was originally a study. It stands out for its rich detail, deftly executed as if by a miniaturist. The artist identifies geographic and architectural landmarks using notes in the lower margin of the sheet, following a convention of sketches done by travelers. The cluster of buildings in the foreground, on the left side of the composition, slowly gives way to an increasingly natural landscape, until it reaches the Sugarloaf, just by the right border of the painting.

— Lucia Klock Stumpf, doutora em antropologia social, USP, e mestre em culturas e identidades brasileiras, IEB‑USP, 2019

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Panorama of the Guanabara Bay executed by Caroline F. Leveson Gower, the wife of F. G. Leveson Gower, Second Secretary of the British Embassy in Rio de Janeiro from 1881 to 1883.

— Unknown authorship, 1998

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